In the medication room, at one of the beds, a thin student with black hair suddenly trembled.

The thin student's eyes wriggled as they slowly opened.

After a while, the student's eyes completely opened, staring at the ceiling of the room vacantly.

"...Where am I..?" Ali muttered, he tried to lift his body up, however a straining pain suddenly coursed through him.

"Ah...!" Ali cried out loudly, feeling immense pain assault him in both mind and body. As if a lock was opened in his mind, memories of the exam overloaded him.

It took a while before the pain subsided. Ali sighed, sweat pouring down on his face. Ah... right... he was in the medic room because of what happened in the exam.

At that moment while he was gasping for his breath, a calm voice suddenly resounded near him.

"... You're finally awake. If you don't want to feel pain, don't move your body too much."

Ali widened his eyes in surprise, he hurriedly shifted to where the sound came from, his eyes narrowing in confusion. His gaze landed at the figure calmly sitting in a chair near him.

The figure was a tall brown haired man wearing a white coat with a black t-shirt underneath; having an uncanny similarity to the attire of the other professors in the academy.

The figure's appearance striked him with familiarity. However, his mind was too overloaded and tired to remember where and when he had seen the man before...

...But besides that, a heavy feeling suddenly flooded him as he thought of several possibilities on why an assume professor was here to talk to him.

As if seeing through his thoughts, the brown haired professor reassured him calmly.

"You don't have to worry... I'm not here to expel you from the academy."

Ali closed his eyes and sighed in relief...

"Atleast, not yet."

The gush of relief vanish quickly as it came. The dreadful anxiety he felt returned to him, making him feel restless.

"... What do you mean by that?" Ali asked raspily, his voice strained. "I'm not expelled 'yet'...?"

So there was still a chance he could get expelled—? That couldn't happen! Ali's face morphed into a despairing expression.

"... Calm down. We'll get to that topic later." Rio answered, waving his hand in dismissal. "Besides that, how are you? You sure kept me waiting."

Ali nodded, taking a deep breath as he tried to calm himself down. After a while of silence, he raspily replied.

"... I'm fine... but what do you mean I kept you waiting?"

"... I was waiting for you to wake up." Rio said, his eyes staring at Ali. "It's already been five days since you were asleep. It's already the last day of the exam."

'...The exam.'

The memories of the exam flashed through him like a presentation. Ali chuckled bitterly. Ah right, the exam... even if he was asleep for five days straight and suffered intense damage in both body and mind, the memory of his failure was still deep-rooted engraved in his mind.historical

"...What happened to the team?"

"What do you want to hear first?" Rio asked nonchalantly. "The good news or the bad news?"

"The bad news first." Ali answered almost immediately.

"... Then I'll make it simple." Rio sipped the coffee he was holding. "Your team has been disqualified in the second day of the exam, marking the entirety of your team as failures. The results also left your leader furious."

Ali twitched at the last part. It was his fault, he couldn't even blame his leader... he sighed as he shook his head. "Then, what's the good news?"

"As for the good news..." Rio paused. "...Even though you along with your team were marked as failures for this exam, the points your team accumulated were not all for nothing. After careful consideration from the academy, they decided to let your team retain your points but minus it in half."

"...Why the special treatment?" Ali asked, confused.

"An unexpected accident occured, which is you." Rio said. "Even though this academy is quite brutal with their methods, they're still an learning institute at the end. They would always try their best to prevent student accidents. In which case, an accident like this wouldn't had happened if the academy's safety measure activated."

Ali slowly nodded, understanding the situation more clearly. Normally, if a team is disqualified due to failure or incompetence then their all their points would be gone. However, in his case, because of the academy's failure was in display, they settled for another outcome.

Ali stared at Rio. Rio returned the gaze. The brown haired man stared at him silently, scrutinizing his whole body with indifference.

'This professor is intimidating...' Ali thought, his eyes averting in nervousness. He glanced at the professor again, waiting for the man to talk. 'Why is the man here again?'

He waited—until—however, the silence stretched so long as Rio continued to stare at him silently.

'Ah damn it..!'

After a long while of awkward silence, Ali decided to take all of his courage and ask: "Then, if not to expel me... why are you here?"

Rio paused for a while. He sighed before he answered. "I'll get straight to the point. I'm here to help you."

"Me..?" Ali narrowed his eyes, confused. "Help me..?"

"Indeed." Rio nodded. "I'm here to help you not get expelled... that is, you do not want to get expelled, ofcourse."

Ali lowered his head, taking a while to answer. The memory of his chained up father flashed through him, evoking a guilty feeling inside him.

"...I don't want to. I can't get expelled. I still have to..."

"Then that's enough." Rio said, standing up as he walked towards Ali. "If you don't want to get expelled, I'll help you. But in one prequisite, you must follow everything I will say without hesitation."

"Is that all...?" Ali raised his head, staring at Rio with an expectant gaze.

"That's all I need from you," Rio answered, standing in-front of Ali. He glanced at the ruby red ornament ring on Ali's hand. "Do you accept? If not, then the deal is over."

'... Absolute obedience..?'

Ali hesitated for a while. However, the desperation and desire to stay eventually overcame the doubts inside his mind. He answered.

"...I accept, but... what about the Pendragon family?"

"As for Eugene, you don't have to worry about him... I already to talked to him beforehand." Rio answered. "However, that's least of your concerns..."

Ali stared at Rio in disbelief, unable to believe the professor's words. This professor managed to talk down a Pendragon..?

However, from the man's tone and assurance, he didn't feel a drop of doubt from the man's words. It felt like it was true and real without a hint of fallacy.

"You should be more concerned of the academy's investigation." Rio leaned on Ali's ears and whispered. "You wouldn't want them to discover... 'that' or else expulsion wouldn't be your destination, but to the grave."

Ali furrowed his brows, confused. It took him a while before he could process and understand the underlying meaning behind the words. However, as soon as he did, his body shook.

"...What..." Ali muttered, stupefied. He stared at Rio with dumbfounded eyes. "...You know of h—?!"

"Calm down." Rio said, his hand suddenly dropping at Ali's mouth. He repeated in low voice. "I need you to calm down, there are cameras in the room."

Ali reluctantly nodded.

Rio withdrew his hand. He continued. "I'll explain it to you later when you get out of the bed, but for now... just listen to me, alright?"

Ali obediently nodded in compliance.

"I'll be taking this ring, then." Rio said, his hand quickly grabbing the ruby red ornament ring on Ali's fingers. "I'll tell you what you need to do, so listen alright? If you don't want to be expelled, you can't mess this up."

Ali glanced at the ring, a hint of anger and frustration flashing through his eyes. Internally, he wanted revenge to the devil.

"The investigators are coming up, the security would need to interrogate you of what happened." Rio said, hiding the ring on his pocket. "However, surprising unrelated questions will come up. And what I need you to do is convince them."

Ali furrowed his brows confused. "...What do you mean convince them?"

"Do you know how to act? In this case, you have to act as if your life depended on it." Rio whispered. "Before this, I told the academy..."

Ali was stunned from the professor's words.

"...With that, I need you to act like what I've told you." Rio leaned back, saying. "If you don't want to be expelled, then you have to convince them."

Ali slowly nodded, his eyes staring at Rio strangely The story... it was filled with complete lies and fallacies. In a way, the story was convincing.

Rio shifted his eyes to his wrist, staring at the smartwatch. He raised his head. "I'll go now. I still have to watch the last day of the exam."

Rioturned his back, slowly walking towards the exit. His footsteps stopped at the door. Before he left—Ali's voice resounded behind him.

"Thank you, Professor."

Rio twisted the doorknob, exiting the room. He lowered his head, muttering in a low voice. "...It's the least I can do."